1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computer implemented systems for managing human resource data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The staffing of complex projects within the corporate environment is traditionally a formidable task. Managers are responsible for identifying and securing employee or external consultants to service the varied project requirements. Conventionally, a manager will use a personal list of resources and the contact with a resource is usually by telephone. Because of this, "telephone tag" and dead-end leads are common and assignment of a resource to an engagement may he delayed by days. When a manager is unable to identify a resource within the manager's organization to fill an engagement, queries to other organizations within the corporation are initiated and usually by telephone. If a suitable internal corporate resource cannot be located, the resource inquiries are extended to External Services Vendors (ESV). These problems are exacerbated in a large and complex corporate environment which may be worldwide.
The parameters that are considered for the service include skill sets and levels, duration of project, time constraints, locations, schedules and commitments of the numerous resources that may provide candidates for fulfilling the requirements of the project. The methods that had historically been used to identify candidates to perform tasks relied primarily on paper calendars, phone calls and personal contacts which methods would be untenable for a complex task in an extensive corporate environment with numerous corporate organizations that are large and diverse in scope.
On the basis of the skills required to fulfill an engagement, a manager will first attempt to identify a consultant within the manager's organization that is available during the required time frame. When a potential consultant is identified, the manager contacts the consultant to verify availability. If available, the consultant is assigned to the engagement by the manager. The assignment is strictly a paper assignment and the contact is generally initiated by telephone with the concomitant disadvantages discussed above. If the manager is unable to identify a resource to fill an engagement, telephone queries are initiated to other management personnel to locate appropriate candidates. If a consultant is identified somewhere within the corporation, that consultant's manager of record is contacted and is responsible for making the project assignment. When a suitable internal resource is not identified, an ESV is considered as a potential candidate, further complicating this process.
In traditional corporate environments, numerous and diverse database systems exist from which information about employees and ESVs could be acquired. The information is, however, scattered across many different locations, systems and responsibilities. These independent database systems normally require significantly different user interfaces to obtain the information. For example, information regarding employee skills would be on one database system, whereas employee demographic information such as geographic locations, willingness to travel, managers and telephone numbers would be on another system. Still another system would contain the detail information on the projects to be staffed. Yet other systems would contain information regarding employee schedules and time reporting and still another system would contain ESV information. Each of these separate database systems are independent with respect to each other and customized for is purpose. Because of the concomitant difficulties involved in a complex project and because of the diversity and number of these databases, the individual corporate database systems are seldom utilized to review the capabilities of consultants to staff the projects.
A number of limited capability, commercially procurable, schedulers are available that provide scheduling analysis based on the time schedules of personnel. Such systems, however, cannot take advantage of the information available in the above mentioned existing corporate database systems. The types of existing databases are so different and diverse that a complex interface would be required to input and output information. Furthermore, such commercially available schedulers do not have the provisions to handle a personnel skills database and perform a skill search with employees selected for an engagement.
It is appreciated from the above that project staffing is traditionally performed by personal interfaces over the telephone and on paper. It is believed that the prior art does not provide a computer implemented system for staffing projects in accordance with a search for required personnel skill sets and schedule availability for the purpose of assigning such personnel to the project. Furthermore, it is believed that such a system does not exist that additionally integrates therein further search parameters such as location, past performance, training, willingness to travel and the like. It is also believed that such a system does not exist that, in addition, modifies the calendars of the selected personnel to reflect the project assignments.